The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) is a public–private partnership that promotes ‘green agricultural growth’ (SAGCOT 2013: 1) by linking small-scale farmers to the global market through a nucleus–outgrower model (Maganga et al. 2016; Sulle and Smalley 2015; Bergius 2014). Within SAGCOT, the Kilombero cluster, one of six planned clusters comprising an area of 126 villages, is focused on sugar cane and rice production. The government plans to transform 182,198 ha of village land into large industrial plantations (SAGCOT 2012: 12), even though to date no new investment has emerged in this cluster.

The Mngeta farm, located in the centre of the Kilombero cluster, is an example of how foreign private large-scale investment can have significant consequences on the local economy and villagers’ livelihoods. This arises in particular through the generation of land conflicts (Greco 2015; Hall et al. 2015c; Locher 2015). This chapter asks: what lessons can be learned from the Mngeta farm case, which was originally promoted as a ‘showcase’ for future large-scale investments in Tanzania?

In 2006, Agrica Ltd (previously InfEnergy) acquired the 5,818 ha Mngeta farm from the parastatal Rufiji Basin Development Agency (RUBADA). Together, they formed a public–private partnership, Kilombero Plantation Ltd (KPL). The project was financed by a number of international public and private institutions, including US-based Capricorn and USAID, Norway-based Norfund and UK-based AgDevCo. The project was promoted as a success story and a project website proclaimed: ‘KPL has increased the income of local people employed by 60%’. Despite these claims, things were not so idyllic, as discussed below.

The land transaction involved a participatory mapping survey, a Resettlement Action Plan and an environmental and social impact assessment report (Coleman 2015). Despite such efforts, the investment has been dubbed ‘irresponsible’ (Oakland Institute et al. 2015: 1), causing a ‘crisis of eviction’ (Chachage 2010: 12). In 2019, KPL was declared bankrupt after defaulting on loans from several donors. After such positive expectations, what contributed to such dramatic failure over the thirteen years since the original investment?

The investment context

Located on the western side of the Kilombero wetlands (see Map 6.1), the Mngeta farm was historically farmed by the Ndamba people.